Jagland tweets on Italy civil unions

Renzi's PD reaches 'framework' deal on bill

(ANSA) - Rome, January 26 - Council of Europe
Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland on Tuesday encouraged Italy
to pass a civil unions bill guaranteeing rights for gay couples.
"I encourage #Italy to ensure legal recognition for same
sex couples as per @ECHR & as in majority of @CoE states," he
tweeted.
A civil unions bill that would extend rights enjoyed by
straight married couples to committed gay couples - such as the
right of one spouse to inherit the other's property or pension,
or to make decisions in their stead should one partner be
incapacitated - is now before parliament.
Italy is the only western European country not to have
either legalised gay marriage or recognised civil unions between
same-sex couples.
The European Court of Human Rights in July 2015 condemned
Italy for failing to give gay couples legal "recognition and
protection", and said the State must change its laws to remedy
that.
"The legal protection currently available in Italy to
same-sex couples...not only failed to provide for the core needs
relevant to a couple in a stable and committed relationship, but
it was also not sufficiently reliable," the human rights court
said in its ruling.
The court also ordered the State to pay damages of 5,000
euros to each of the three gay couples who brought the case
against Italy to Strasbourg, and awarded another 14,000 euros to
cover legal costs.
Premier Matteo Renzi has said his government would
introduce laws on same-sex unions this year.
Neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions between
same-sex partners are legally recognized in Italy but some
cities, including Rome, have a civil union register.
Catholics across the political spectrum, including some in
Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), object to a measure
in the bill allowing gay spouses to adopt their partner's
biological children.
The PD Senate caucus on Tuesday approved the framework of
the bill.
The PD has granted freedom of conscience on some
provisions including stepchild adoption, but divisions remain
within the party.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday that he had
"already accounted" for the possibility of staging a referendum
to scrap the bill if it is passed into law.
"I think that, when faced with such a difficult
parliamentary decision, it could be a rational decision to let
the people decide, if the law were perceived as an excess, in
one direction or another," Alfano, the leader of the small New
Centre Right (NCD) party, a minority partner in Renzi's
governing coalition, told Radio Capital.
Meanwhile, Gaetano Quagliariello, the leader of a small
IDEA group of Catholic lawmakers, said that he was hopeful of
obtaining secret ballots for Senate votes on the bill.
"We are ready to ask for secret votes," said
Quagliariello.
"We'll see what amendments it's possible to have them on
and we'll do it.
"In the GAL (umbrella group that IDEA belongs to) alone we
can count on around 10 Senators," he said, adding that the quota
of 20 Senators needed to obtain a secret vote was "easily
achievable".
Experts see the bill as more likely to encounter trouble
in secret votes.
PD Senate caucus leader Luigi Zanda said PD Senators "have
no interest" in a secret vote on the civil unions bill.
"Our position is very clear, we've expressed it in our
assemblies, they are transparent positions," Zanda said.